New store for Eastbourne’s Heritage Collections to open its doors to celebrate Heritage Open Days

Since spring 2026, Towner has been relocating Eastbourne Borough Council’s Heritage Collections to a new dedicated storage facility in Hampden Park. The collections are made up of approximately 20,000 artefacts, photographs and works on paper of local and regional significance.

The collection highlights archaeology, local history and extensive photographic collections documenting Eastbourne’s development over the past 150 years. Together, these objects allow for layered storytelling about people, place and landscape, from prehistoric communities through to modern Eastbourne.

On Saturday, September 19 the new store will be open to the public for the very first time as part of Heritage Open Days. Members of the Towner team who helped with the move will be on hand to share stories from the project, explain what it takes to relocate a heritage collection and how Towner cares for it on behalf of Eastbourne Borough Council.

In recent weeks, Towner has been presenting Project Relic in the store, an 8-week paid summer skills initiative for seven young people aged 18 to 25, giving participants hands-on opportunities at the store to handle, catalogue, and care for local history, archeology and military collections under the direction of Laurie Bassam, Heritage Collections Curator at Towner.

As well as providing suitable storage the new space will also mean that interested individuals and groups will soon be able to request access to view and research items. The location was chosen due to its proximity to significant residential areas, schools and community groups and, importantly, is easily accessible by train via Hampden Park.

Towner’s Interim Co-director Niamh Pearce said: “We’re delighted to offer people the opportunity to visit the new Store and get up close to Eastbourne’s heritage, at what we hope will be the first of many public events providing wider access to these fantastic collections.

"Through Project Relic, our recent skills development programme for young people, we’ve been thrilled to see the enthusiasm of the participants and their interest in their local heritage.

"We hope that providing greater access to the collections, both at the Store and at Towner Seven Sisters, will inspire many more local people to discover, engage with and take an interest in the heritage on their doorstep.”

This work is part of a wider arrangement between Towner and Eastbourne Borough Council, which will see Towner taking on care and management of the Heritage Collections on behalf of the Council. The collections will also form an integral part of the activities at Towner Seven Sisters, where parts of the heritage collections will be displayed alongside artworks from Towner’s Collection.

Further public events such as the upcoming Beachy Head Woman: Evolving Histories allow people to get up close to some of the objects from these important collections.